Urbano Antillon stretched his unbeaten streak to 26 as he dominated Tyrone Harris en route to an impressive fifth round TKO victory in their lightweight showdown, last night at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, on a Top Rank-promoted card televised on Azteca America.

Antillon (26-0, 19 KOs) applied a game plan which featured a sustained body attack that effectively broke Harris (23-5, 15 KOs) down as Antillon collected his ninth straight stoppage and effectively puts him in position for a title shot.

Harris started the fight strong as he boxed well and used his fast hands to keep things competitive in the early rounds. However, Antillon would be undeterred in his attack as he continued to walk in through the front door and pound away at Harris’ frame without collecting much damage. As the rounds went on, so did the punishment as Antillon continued to dish out wicked hooks to both sides of Harris’ body.

Antillon was cut over the left eye with a punch in the third but it didn’t slow the bruising attack. By round four, the body punching began to visibly take its toll as Harris’ early rally got snuffed out by the Maywood, Calif. fighter’s thudding body work. Harris’ punch output would drop significantly as Harris was resigned to attempting to protect himself rather than fight.

Antillon decidedly looked to put Harris away in round five as he turned up the heat.

A violent four punch combination that featured two brutal body shots and finished with a left hook folded up Harris. Although Harris would struggle to his feet, another series of wicked punches forced referee Tony Weeks to call a halt to the bout at 2:23 in the fifth round.

Antillon’s handlers are sure to be seeking a world title shot now as this has been yet another impressive performance.

Gomez stops Buendia with body shot

Former Contender Season 1 star, Alfonso Gomez was entrenched in a serious war with Juan Buendia before sinking a picture perfect left hook to the body of Buendia to stop him in the eighth round of their bloody ten round welterweight battle.

It had all of the makings of a fight-of-the year candidate as both fighters let it all hang out until Gomez abruptly ended the eight round war and improved his record to 19-4-2 with his 9th KO victory. This would be Gomez’ first fight since he received sound thumping from Miguel Cotto over a year ago. Seeking to take advantage of Gomez’ ring rust, Buendia (14-3-1) began the fight as the aggressor and pressed the action early on.

With Buendia winging hooks like a wildman, Gomez appeared to be far more relaxed as he sought openings when Buendia would finish punching and remained effective with a short jab to keep Buendia at bay. In the fourth, Buendia was cut over the right eye by a left hook.

A clashing of heads in the 5th opened a nasty gash in the right eyebrow of Gomez that sent blood streaming down his face and brought concern that the fight could possibly be stopped. Both fighters battled with a sense of urgency and let their hands go as the fans at the Hard Rock showered them with oohs and ahhs after each brutal exchange .

Although Buendia appeared to be ahead because of his sheer relentlessness, Gomez looked quite comfortable working off of the jab and finding the right spots to land punches. In the seventh, Buendia rocked Gomez with a vicious series of hooks and overhand rights, but Gomez remained game and never lost his composure. Gomez began round eight with a searing attack and punctuated the violence by firing a picture perfect left hook that sank right underneath Buendia’s ribs to the body put Buendia down and in a tremendous amount of pain.

Buendia would rise but told referee Robert Byrd that he could no longer continue at 1:07 of the 8th.

In other action . . . .

Diego Magdaleno survived an early first round flash knockdown to work his way to a hard fought unanimous decision over Juan Santiago in four round super featherweight action. The Las Vegas native (9-0, 3 Kos) popped off the mat in the first to put together scoring combination to both the body and head of Santiago (7-2-1, 5 Kos) and earned a victory to keep his young unbeaten streak intact. Magdaleno prevailed with scores of 40-37 (which was an error due to the knockdown), 39-36 and 38-37.

Mark Melliguen utilized sharp punching to cruise to an easy unanimous decision victory over the game Ramon Montano in a matchup of super lightweights. Melliguen (14-1, 10 Kos) was consistent in his attack as Montano (17-7-2, 2 Kos) could never really get into a groove. Judges saw it in the Filipino’s favor with scores of 80-72, 79-73 and 78-74.

In super bantamweight action, Roberto Marroquin improved his record to 6-0 as def Julio Valadez (3-5) via KO with a ferocious left uppercut at 2:15 in round 4 and earned his 5th KO victory of his young career.

24-year-old Michael Farenas took out Walter Estrada via KO at 2:59 in the first round of their scheduled 8 round featherweight bout. A crushing overhand right by Farenas (23-2-2, 20 Kos) dropped Estrada (35-10, 24 Kos) late in the first round and put an end to an entertaining night.

Young prospect Glen Tapia defeated Juan Carlos De Leon at :34 of the 2nd round via TKO in their brief super welterweight encounter. Referee Kenny Bayless stopped the fight after De Leon (1-2) ate a massive amount of 1-2 combinations. Tapia (2-0, 2 Kos) is expected to fight on the undercard of the June 13th clash between Cotto and Clottey.

In the first bout of the evening, previously unbeaten Marvin Cordova was handed his first lost as he was simply out worked by Dennis Laurente down the stretch of their eight round super lightweight bout en route to a unanimous decision. Cordova (20-1-1) faded during the last half as Laurente (31-3-4) pounded his way to the upset victory. The point Cordova lost from hitting Laurente after the bell in the 7th did not help matters any. All the judges saw it 77-74.